Bible and dual meanings of words

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Here are a few h*m*nyms:

  • Light: It can mean illumination or the opposite of heavy
  • Bite: to bite is to chomp down on something, or it could denote a small portion of food or even a meal (e.g., Would you like to grab a bite with me?)
  • Bit: It can be several things: a) the past tense of bite; b) a component of the smallest unit of addressable memory in a given computer (e.g., A byte is a unit of data equal to eight bits); c) an appliance in the mouth of a horse (e.g., The horse was champing at the bit); or d) a small amount (e.g., I like a bit of spice in my meatballs)
  • Ball: It can mean a round sphere (e.g., a base-ball or basket-ball), or an evening party or reception that usually involves dancing (e.g., Many A-listers were at the ball on Saturday)

Here are a couple of h*m*phones:

  • Bite and byte. The former can mean to chomp down on something, and the latter can mean a unit of data
  • Holy and wholly. The former can mean sacred (e.g., The God of the Bible is described as holy), or it could denote completely (e.g., I am wholly committed to the idea)

Here is a h*m*graph:

  • Sow and sow can mean sow (pronounced so–), as in to scatter seed, or sow (pronounced sou, which rhymes with bow-wow), meaning an adult female pig, It can also be a connecting word (e.g., So, what are you going to do?) or an activity involving a needle and thread (e.g., Could you sew this rip in my shirt, please?). In the Bible: Jesus describes a "farmer [who] went out in the field to sow his seed" (Matthew 13:3 NIV)and the apostle Peter describes unrighteous people who "follow the corrupt desire of the flesh[c] and despise authority, behaving like sows (“A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud” (2 Peter 2:2 NIV)

Now that I've thoroughly confused you--and me(!), I think it safe to say that the word lion in the Bible is none of the above (i.e., a h*m*nym, h*m*phone, or h*m*graph).

I suggest that the word lion, as a descriptor of the character of both Jesus and Satan, is simply a word that describes specific and different aspects of the metaphor lion.

On the one hand, Satan is a lion in the sense that he stealthily and silently stalks his prey with the intent of destroying it (as in "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy," John 10:10). On the other hand, Jesus is a lion in the sense that he can be fearsome, inspiring dread in the ungodly who oppose him, or in the sense that he is majestic in his authority, which he displays as the only one who is worthy to open "the scroll and its seven seals" (Revelation 5:5).

In short, a biblical metaphor is flexible in that it can describe someone or something differently in different contexts.

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